Going for Gold: Eight of Australia’s best medal chances for Paris 2024

Star swimmers and rising track and field stars head the list of Australian athletes set to lead the charge for the green and gold at the Paris Olympics. Jessica Hull (1500m track) Few Australian athletes have had more of a meteoric rise in 2024 than Jessica Hull; indeed, it appears she is peaking at exactly the right time for the Olympics. In wake of her world record-breaking performance at the Monaco Diamond League last week, the Australian track sensation is gearing up to have a crack at the gold in Paris. She competed in Tokyo and finished 11th in the 1500m, and then came eighth at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham two years later. But 2024 has been hull’s year; the 27-year-old from New South Wales set a new world record in the women’s 2000m by clocking 5:19.70 - eclipsing the previous world record of 5:21.56 and winning the event by more than six seconds. Less than a week earlier, Hull set a new national record at the Eugene Diamond League in the women’s 1500m and became the fifth-fastest runner in the history of the event. Shattering her personal best by over five seconds in the Paris Diamond League, Hull has positioned herself to be a formidable contender on the world stage. While the 2000m is not an Olympic event, Hull has finished second in all three of her Diamond League 1500m outings in the 1500m this season in Doha, Eugene and Paris. Nina Kennedy (pole vault) Australia is pinning its hopes on Busselton pole vaulter Nina Kennedy to bring home the gold, with the Commonwealth Games gold medallist on an impressive trajectory despite some setbacks. The 27-year-old saw her preparations for the Tokyo Olympics derailed by injury and COVID-19 scare, which carried into the tournament as she missed the final, but made a strong comeback on the national and international stage. After raising the Australian record to 4.82m at the 2021 Sydney Track Classic, Kennedy then went on to soar at the 2022 World Athletics Championships by reaching 4.80m — a season’s best and enough for a bronze medal. The West-Australian born quickly became a fan-favourite the following month when she clinched gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games title with a leap of 4.60m. She became the fifth Australian to become a Diamond League champion after winning in Monaco, not even a fractured L5 vertebra could stop her from landing another record at the Budapest World Championships after a four-week rest in 2023, sharing the medal with American pole vaulter Katie Moon who tied in first. While Kennedy revealed another injury challenge set her back for two months, she quickly jumped back into the competition in May 2024, placing second at the Doha Diamond League by vaulting 4.73m and she will enter Paris as favourite after jumping 4.88m in Monaco this month. Mollie O’Callaghan/Ariarne Titmus (200m freestyle and relays) The most hotly-anticipated showdown in the pool may not be an international clash of the titans; instead, it will likely feature two Aussies who share the same coach. Australia fell in love with Ariarne Titmus in Tokyo, who emerged from the previous Olympics with two golds, a silver and a bronze — and a reputation as one of the world’s best swimmers. She edged out American favourite Katie Ledecky to win gold in the 400m freestyle, a race made even more memorable by coach Dean Boxall’s unforgettable, unchained celebrations in the aftermath. But it is another of Boxall’s pupils — 20 year-old Mollie O’Callaghan — who has threatened to steal her thunder. O’Callaghan won five gold medals at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, highlighted by her setting a new world record in the 200m freestyle. She then beat Titmus to the 200m freestyle title at April’s Australian swimming championships, swimming a then-season’s best time. But Titmus hit back at the Olympic trials in June, beating O’Callaghan’s 200m freestyle world record by 0.62 seconds to enter the Paris games with a slight edge. The two rivals and training partners have a healthy dose of respect for the other, but neither of them will cede a gold medal willingly. O’Callaghan will also contest the 100m and Titmus the 400m and 800m freestyles, but all eyes will be on their 200m showdown — and no matter whoever wins in the pool, the audience may emerge the biggest winner. Logan Martin (bmx freestyle) The BMX freestyle was a new event launched at the Tokyo Olympics, and when all was said and done, an Australian claimed the inaugural men’s gold medal. That man, Logan Martin, has every intention of successfully defending his Olympic title in Paris as he aims to make it back-to-back gold medals. The Queenslander spent last Olympics preparing in his own backyard, having constructed a competition-sized BMX park which came in handy, as COVID prevented people from leaving the house. Already a big name in the world of BMX, with two world Championship and four X Games golds to his name prior to Tokyo, the Olympics exposed Martin to a whole new audience as they rode every trick with him on his way to the final. There, he drew on all his experience and blitzed the competition with an excellent first run and while he came unstuck in the second, his 93.30 score was enough to secure him the inaugural gold medal. Martin added more X Games gold and bronze medals to his resume in the two years which followed and enters Paris as one of the favourites. He will face stiff opposition in the form of Frenchman Anthony Jeanjean, the world number one who will have the support of the home crowd, but Martin will not be phased by the pressure as he looks to further etch his name into the BMX Olympic history. Jess Fox (canoe slalom) Jess Fox is not someone many people would have known entering the last Olympics, but she ended the Paris games as the name on everyone’s lips. Canoe slalom is not the most high-profile of Olympic sports, but Fox changed the perception in Tokyo with a series of sterling efforts. From 2012-2019, Fox won 10 world Championship gold medals both as an individual and part of a team across the C1 and K1 disciplines, along with four silvers and two bronze. Then came Tokyo, where Fox cemented herself as one of Australia’s dominant athletes with gold in the first-ever C1 race at the Olympics, before winning a bronze in the K1 event. Far from resting on her laurels, Fox has continued to add to her trophy cabinet in the lead-up to the Paris, having won five further gold, two silvers and two bronze medals at subsuquent World Championships. While she will likely be favorite to claim gold in the single canoe, the prospect of going two spots better in the K1 will be fuelling her just as much. Saya Sakakibara (BMX racing) The 24-year-old has the world at her feet, but it is redemption she will be out for when she takes to the track in Paris. Three years ago, the 21-year-old entered the Olympics with a pair of silver medals around her neck, courtesy of strong showings at the 2018 and 2020 UCI BMX Supercross World Cups. She led during the semifinals in Tokyo and a berth in the final appeared stragithforward - but then, tragedy struck. Sakakibara collided with another rider, knocking her off her bike and out of contention, resulting in a serious concussion and an untimely end to her maiden Olympics campaign. A year later, another serious concussion had Sakakibara grappling with a return to the track and the mental hurdles associated with competing again. On a personal level, Sakakibara knew all too well the dangers of the sport — her brother Kai had been forced to retire from the sport after a serious accident in 2020 left him with a traumatic brain injury, forcing him to be put in a medically induced coma for six weeks. Ultimately, she persevered and while her decision may have been risky, it has worked in her favour, with two World Cup gold medals have followed for Sakakibara to propel her into favouritism in Paris, Matt Wearn (ILCA 7 sailing) Wearn will not command the fanfare of his fellow Olympians and will enter Paris under the radar of most casual sports fans. But while Wearn may be out of the limelight, the West Australian sailor will enter the ILCA 7 discipline as the favourite for the event. Growing up in Perth’s northern suburbs, the then-talented teenager was forced to choose between sailing and football, eventually eschewing a place in West Perth’s development squad to pursue the former full-time. It is a decision which has paid dividends for the Royal Perth Yacht Club junior and Freamantle Sailing Club alumni, who has climbed the ranks of the sailing world over the past decade. In the four years leading up to Tokyo, the Woodvale Secondary College graduate medalled at the World Champions in the Laser discipline, backing up a bronze in Split in 2017 with three successive silvers in Aarhus, Sakaiminato and Melbourne across the next three year. Making his Olympics debut in Tokyo, Wearn was far from overawed by the occasion and he left the country with a gold medal proudly draped around his neck. Since then, Wearn has continued to dominate the seas as an increasing number of accolades have come his way; after being awarded an OAM in 2022, he was named Male Able-Athlete of the Year at the AIS Sport Performance Awards a year later, before winning gold medals at both the 2023 and 2024 World Championships in the ILCA 7 class.